My experience getting and surviving COVID-19
Ever since the early days of the pandemic, I saw getting COVID-19... maybe not as an inevitability, but the odds were not in my favor. As I have written before, there is only so much journalism one could do from behind the computer. I've covered closely packed (but mostly masked, even if not always properly) rallies and protests. I covered protests where there wasn't much mask-wearing. I went without a mask in Kenosha during my spring and summer visit, because, back then, wearing a mask might as well put a big "out of towner" sign over your head. I've taken South Shore Line trains back when mask-wearing was a lot more sporadic.
So it was a sad irony that I didn't get infected doing any of that.
A bit of background is necessary - and I'll try not to get too long-winded.
Back in November, vladiatorr tested positive for COVID-19. After spending the requisite 14 days in quarantine and experiencing no symptoms whatsoever, he took another COVID-19 test (Which came back negative) and an antibody test... Which also came back negative. So either the original test was wrong or the infection somehow failed to trigger the creation of antibodies.
As I mentioned earlier, my family ended up doing something of a hybrid Christmas celebrations - annanov, John and their kids came to my mom's house in the burbs and marked the CHristmas with her and my grandma, while Vlad (and his boyfriend) and I joined in via ZOom from our respective apartments to unwrap our Christmas gifts (on December 17). Since Vlad is the one with the car and one who's been facing the least risk, he ended up playing a family Santa - picking up gifts from me, delivering them (and his gifts) to my mom, picking up the gifts everybody staying at my mom's got for us, and delivering the ones meant for me to me.
The next day, on December 28, Nadya got sick with what at first looked like some kind of a stomach thing. It turned out to be COVID. John would soon test positive as well. Anna and my mom took several tests just to be sure, and they all came back negative. It makes absolutely no sense, considering that they were all in the same house and they all, naturally, had pretty close contact with Nadya, but here we are.
The next day, my niece was doing well enough to be discharged, and that side of the family went home to quarantine. Amidst it all, heat went out in my building. When I posted about it on Facebook, Vlad decided to bring me a portable space heater to tide me over (he also brought me some food, which really came in handy later)
On December 30, I woke up with what seemed like typical cold symptom - runny nose and a slightly sore throat. Given that I spent a few hours in a cold apartment, I didn't think much of it. I did have what felt like a dry cough, briefly, and my joints did feel sore, briefly, but I brushed it off.
On New Years Eve, Vlad's COVID-19 test (which he took out of the abundance of caution) came back positive.
Now, I should mention that, both during the presents swap and when he gave me the space heater, we both wore masks and we interacted for less than five minutes. Vlad didn't come in contact with Nadya at all, and I'm not sure if he came in contact with John.
It's entirely possible that the two infections had nothing to do with each other. Journalism teaches you that, sometimes, wild coincidences really are just wild coincidences... But given that Vlad was a common link in all of this.
My mom kept bugging me to get tested, but getting a free COVID-19 test on New Years Day was literally impossible, and I admit that I didn't feel the urgency. Like I said, the symptoms still felt more like a regular cold, and I figured that, well, end of December and the start of January are usually the slowest periods for community journalism, so it's not like I'd be out and about too much anyway.
I did feel more tired on New Years Eve, but in the way that felt like regular fatigue, which wasn't that unusual in my line of work, especially since I did write an article that day. On New Years Day, I felt more tired, and was still experiencing other flu-like symptoms - but I felt well enough to send a birthday message to Timofey (my cousin's birthday was the next day, and his girlfriend, Nyima, was compiling a video montage of his relatives sending him their well-wishes).
But on Saturday, the symptoms really hit. Mostly fatigue. Just like during Twitter Flu of 2014, I slept for hours and hours at the time, and I felt tired when I wasn't sleeping. It felt even worse on Sunday. Usually, I Skype with Grandpa Gena P. and my dad on Sunday mornings, but I ended up telling my grandpa that I wasn't feeling well, sent me dad a message to that effect, send a message to the co-host of a writing group I was planning to attend saying that I won't make it, and promptly fell asleep until 6:00 PM
I ended up having to substantially rewrite one of the articles I turned in earlier (in fairness, the mistake that required the rewrite was entirely avoidable), which I was only able to do because, well, Hodgkins gave me some practice writing articles while fatigued.
Mindful of Vlad's experience, I scheduled two COVID-19 tests - one on Monday (January 4) at a CVS, at one of the only available slots anywhere near where I lived, and one on Tuesday (January 5) at a city-run site WAY out in the West Side's Montclare neighborhood (it was still the closest free city-run site to where I live).
Turned out that I was so fatigued and so eager to grab a slot that I didn't notice that it was drive-through only - and no, they could not test someone who walked through a drive-through. I ended up registering for a rapid test on Wednesday, making sure it was a walk-up test that time, at the CVS pretty close to my previous apartment.
(I should mention that, when I tweeted about my misadventures with that test, kaffyr offered to drive me to a testing site. I had to firmly reject it, because she and her husband are both more vulnerable due to their ages and other issues and, with COVID feeling and more likely, I would not have her risk her life and health on my account)
The Tuesday test went completely without a hitch.
At that point, fatigue was a common symptom, but it seemed like, every day, my body picked one symptom to focus on. On Monday, it was a cough. On Tuesday, it was a feeling of weakness (honestly, I think I made it to the city site through the sheer strength of my stubbornness). On Wednesday, it was out of control sneezing.
The rapid test came back first, about two hours after I took it, and the result from the city site came back a few hours later. Both came back positive. By that point, given all the symptoms... I would've been surprised if it came back negative.
Like I said - I raised the possibility of it on Twitter at the start of the week, but I now officially announced it on Facebook and Twitter, Texted and DMed family members, including Timofey, alerted my editors (just to give them heads up that my work availability is going to be affected) and basically went back to sleep.
I should mention that I still did some work for Journal & Topics newspapers on Monday and Tuesday, but that's about all I managed for that entire week. As I've commented on Facebook and Twitter, getting COVID-19 was the closest I got to a vacation in quote some time.
Several people, including kaffyr, offered to drop off groceries for me. Since that was safer than driving an infectious person to a testing site, I said that I would take advantage of that, if I really did start to run out of food. But between food Vlad brought, the earlier grocery purchases and the fact that I honestly wasn't eating that much on the first week of the month, it wasn't a pressing issue.
Over the next seven days, I felt like I was making very slow, very, very incremental progress. Every day, I would sleep just a bit less, and the sore throat would diminish just a little. My body was still playing the Which Symptom is the Strongest Today roulette, which certainly threw me some curve balls.
I should mention that all of my symptoms were flu-like. Thanks to all the snot, I was smelling less, but I could always smell something. My sense of taste was never affected. Which was more than I could say for Vlad, who experienced flu-like symptoms and a temporary loss of smell and taste - though he did recover quicker overall than I did.
Nadya recovered relatively quickly. Poor John, on the other hand, fared worse than me and Vlad, experiencing breathing problems at one point.
It took me a few days to realize that my mom was really worried about me. It took me even longer to realize why she was worried - because I had chemo, and, six years later, she was worried about how it might affect my immune system's ability to fight COVID-19. And, in fairness, I don't think he worries were completely groundless. I do wonder, sometimes, if chemo messed up my immune system, and whether it does take longer for scratches to heal or if it's all in my head.
In our Skype calls, Grandpa Gena P. praised me for how calmly and bravely I was handling the disease. I'm not sure I would go that far, but, for the most part, I wasn't scared I was more than a bit annoyed with the slow progress of recovery and lingering symptoms, but it still wasn't as bad as chemo side-effects. Maybe if I lost a sense of smell and/or taste I would be more freaked out, but this was still familiar territory.
Most of the time. There were nights when I afraid to go to sleep.
If you know that happened with Timofey's older brother, you will understand why, in the quiet darkness of night, a disease that can potentially affect breathing made me nervous.
The recovery continued, slowly and gradually. I would say that I started to feel noticeable difference around January 13, the first time I was able to stay up almost the entire day without falling asleep and when many of my symptoms subsided. After that, it still took a few more days for them to go away entirely.
I wasn't sure how to count the 14-day quarantine starting point. From the first symptoms (December 30)? From the first serious symptoms (January 2)? From when I got the test (which one?) All I know is that I went to get some groceries on January 13 (masked, wearing gloves and armed with a hand sanitizer) and I stopped trying to quarantine on January 15.
I was thinking about getting an antibody test, but finding a free antibody test (or a test at a place that would accept CountyCare) is trickier than finding a free COVID-19 test, so I ultimately didn't bother. Especially since I ended up spending the next two weeks trying to make up for all the work I didn't do. As I commented before, in the freelance word, you get paid by the article, and there are no sick days - if you don't work, you don't eat.
Since then... I kept wearing face coverings in public transit, grocery stores, on busy streets, etc., for the simple pragmatic reason that we're still not sure whether people who have antibodies can infect others (though evidence from Israel and UK is increasingly pointing toward "it reduces the odds of spreading it," which is... something). But some second thoughts about handling vegetables at grocery stores, or touching surfaces, have vanished.
CountyCare sent me a link to register for a vaccine. Under the current state and city vaccination plans, it will be a while before I get my turn, but we don't know how long natural immunity will last, and I've been told by several medical experts (while covering city and private outreach efforts) that this is precisely while people in my situation should. And if i do experience side-effects... Well, I've gone through something like this once already.
I don't have any great message about being careful, or about wearing masks, using hand sanitizers and staying two meters+ apart - I feel like, at this point, people already made up their minds about what they will or wouldn't do, and, besides, look at how I got it. But I don't think you should take my case as proof that the aforementioned measures are useless. Statistics clearly show that reducing close contact and wearing masks have at least some effect on reducing transmission. I think people have some unrealistic idea that social distancing/masks/hand sanitizer can provide 100% protection, but that doesn't mean they don't have value.
As the saying goes, just because death is inevitable doesn't mean you should rush to meet it.
There is one thing I do hope the readers will take away from it. Get vaccinated. Whatever side-effects you may experience aren't as bad as getting immunity the hard way.
So it was a sad irony that I didn't get infected doing any of that.
A bit of background is necessary - and I'll try not to get too long-winded.
Back in November, vladiatorr tested positive for COVID-19. After spending the requisite 14 days in quarantine and experiencing no symptoms whatsoever, he took another COVID-19 test (Which came back negative) and an antibody test... Which also came back negative. So either the original test was wrong or the infection somehow failed to trigger the creation of antibodies.
As I mentioned earlier, my family ended up doing something of a hybrid Christmas celebrations - annanov, John and their kids came to my mom's house in the burbs and marked the CHristmas with her and my grandma, while Vlad (and his boyfriend) and I joined in via ZOom from our respective apartments to unwrap our Christmas gifts (on December 17). Since Vlad is the one with the car and one who's been facing the least risk, he ended up playing a family Santa - picking up gifts from me, delivering them (and his gifts) to my mom, picking up the gifts everybody staying at my mom's got for us, and delivering the ones meant for me to me.
The next day, on December 28, Nadya got sick with what at first looked like some kind of a stomach thing. It turned out to be COVID. John would soon test positive as well. Anna and my mom took several tests just to be sure, and they all came back negative. It makes absolutely no sense, considering that they were all in the same house and they all, naturally, had pretty close contact with Nadya, but here we are.
The next day, my niece was doing well enough to be discharged, and that side of the family went home to quarantine. Amidst it all, heat went out in my building. When I posted about it on Facebook, Vlad decided to bring me a portable space heater to tide me over (he also brought me some food, which really came in handy later)
On December 30, I woke up with what seemed like typical cold symptom - runny nose and a slightly sore throat. Given that I spent a few hours in a cold apartment, I didn't think much of it. I did have what felt like a dry cough, briefly, and my joints did feel sore, briefly, but I brushed it off.
On New Years Eve, Vlad's COVID-19 test (which he took out of the abundance of caution) came back positive.
Now, I should mention that, both during the presents swap and when he gave me the space heater, we both wore masks and we interacted for less than five minutes. Vlad didn't come in contact with Nadya at all, and I'm not sure if he came in contact with John.
It's entirely possible that the two infections had nothing to do with each other. Journalism teaches you that, sometimes, wild coincidences really are just wild coincidences... But given that Vlad was a common link in all of this.
My mom kept bugging me to get tested, but getting a free COVID-19 test on New Years Day was literally impossible, and I admit that I didn't feel the urgency. Like I said, the symptoms still felt more like a regular cold, and I figured that, well, end of December and the start of January are usually the slowest periods for community journalism, so it's not like I'd be out and about too much anyway.
I did feel more tired on New Years Eve, but in the way that felt like regular fatigue, which wasn't that unusual in my line of work, especially since I did write an article that day. On New Years Day, I felt more tired, and was still experiencing other flu-like symptoms - but I felt well enough to send a birthday message to Timofey (my cousin's birthday was the next day, and his girlfriend, Nyima, was compiling a video montage of his relatives sending him their well-wishes).
But on Saturday, the symptoms really hit. Mostly fatigue. Just like during Twitter Flu of 2014, I slept for hours and hours at the time, and I felt tired when I wasn't sleeping. It felt even worse on Sunday. Usually, I Skype with Grandpa Gena P. and my dad on Sunday mornings, but I ended up telling my grandpa that I wasn't feeling well, sent me dad a message to that effect, send a message to the co-host of a writing group I was planning to attend saying that I won't make it, and promptly fell asleep until 6:00 PM
I ended up having to substantially rewrite one of the articles I turned in earlier (in fairness, the mistake that required the rewrite was entirely avoidable), which I was only able to do because, well, Hodgkins gave me some practice writing articles while fatigued.
Mindful of Vlad's experience, I scheduled two COVID-19 tests - one on Monday (January 4) at a CVS, at one of the only available slots anywhere near where I lived, and one on Tuesday (January 5) at a city-run site WAY out in the West Side's Montclare neighborhood (it was still the closest free city-run site to where I live).
Turned out that I was so fatigued and so eager to grab a slot that I didn't notice that it was drive-through only - and no, they could not test someone who walked through a drive-through. I ended up registering for a rapid test on Wednesday, making sure it was a walk-up test that time, at the CVS pretty close to my previous apartment.
(I should mention that, when I tweeted about my misadventures with that test, kaffyr offered to drive me to a testing site. I had to firmly reject it, because she and her husband are both more vulnerable due to their ages and other issues and, with COVID feeling and more likely, I would not have her risk her life and health on my account)
The Tuesday test went completely without a hitch.
At that point, fatigue was a common symptom, but it seemed like, every day, my body picked one symptom to focus on. On Monday, it was a cough. On Tuesday, it was a feeling of weakness (honestly, I think I made it to the city site through the sheer strength of my stubbornness). On Wednesday, it was out of control sneezing.
The rapid test came back first, about two hours after I took it, and the result from the city site came back a few hours later. Both came back positive. By that point, given all the symptoms... I would've been surprised if it came back negative.
Like I said - I raised the possibility of it on Twitter at the start of the week, but I now officially announced it on Facebook and Twitter, Texted and DMed family members, including Timofey, alerted my editors (just to give them heads up that my work availability is going to be affected) and basically went back to sleep.
I should mention that I still did some work for Journal & Topics newspapers on Monday and Tuesday, but that's about all I managed for that entire week. As I've commented on Facebook and Twitter, getting COVID-19 was the closest I got to a vacation in quote some time.
Several people, including kaffyr, offered to drop off groceries for me. Since that was safer than driving an infectious person to a testing site, I said that I would take advantage of that, if I really did start to run out of food. But between food Vlad brought, the earlier grocery purchases and the fact that I honestly wasn't eating that much on the first week of the month, it wasn't a pressing issue.
Over the next seven days, I felt like I was making very slow, very, very incremental progress. Every day, I would sleep just a bit less, and the sore throat would diminish just a little. My body was still playing the Which Symptom is the Strongest Today roulette, which certainly threw me some curve balls.
I should mention that all of my symptoms were flu-like. Thanks to all the snot, I was smelling less, but I could always smell something. My sense of taste was never affected. Which was more than I could say for Vlad, who experienced flu-like symptoms and a temporary loss of smell and taste - though he did recover quicker overall than I did.
Nadya recovered relatively quickly. Poor John, on the other hand, fared worse than me and Vlad, experiencing breathing problems at one point.
It took me a few days to realize that my mom was really worried about me. It took me even longer to realize why she was worried - because I had chemo, and, six years later, she was worried about how it might affect my immune system's ability to fight COVID-19. And, in fairness, I don't think he worries were completely groundless. I do wonder, sometimes, if chemo messed up my immune system, and whether it does take longer for scratches to heal or if it's all in my head.
In our Skype calls, Grandpa Gena P. praised me for how calmly and bravely I was handling the disease. I'm not sure I would go that far, but, for the most part, I wasn't scared I was more than a bit annoyed with the slow progress of recovery and lingering symptoms, but it still wasn't as bad as chemo side-effects. Maybe if I lost a sense of smell and/or taste I would be more freaked out, but this was still familiar territory.
Most of the time. There were nights when I afraid to go to sleep.
If you know that happened with Timofey's older brother, you will understand why, in the quiet darkness of night, a disease that can potentially affect breathing made me nervous.
The recovery continued, slowly and gradually. I would say that I started to feel noticeable difference around January 13, the first time I was able to stay up almost the entire day without falling asleep and when many of my symptoms subsided. After that, it still took a few more days for them to go away entirely.
I wasn't sure how to count the 14-day quarantine starting point. From the first symptoms (December 30)? From the first serious symptoms (January 2)? From when I got the test (which one?) All I know is that I went to get some groceries on January 13 (masked, wearing gloves and armed with a hand sanitizer) and I stopped trying to quarantine on January 15.
I was thinking about getting an antibody test, but finding a free antibody test (or a test at a place that would accept CountyCare) is trickier than finding a free COVID-19 test, so I ultimately didn't bother. Especially since I ended up spending the next two weeks trying to make up for all the work I didn't do. As I commented before, in the freelance word, you get paid by the article, and there are no sick days - if you don't work, you don't eat.
Since then... I kept wearing face coverings in public transit, grocery stores, on busy streets, etc., for the simple pragmatic reason that we're still not sure whether people who have antibodies can infect others (though evidence from Israel and UK is increasingly pointing toward "it reduces the odds of spreading it," which is... something). But some second thoughts about handling vegetables at grocery stores, or touching surfaces, have vanished.
CountyCare sent me a link to register for a vaccine. Under the current state and city vaccination plans, it will be a while before I get my turn, but we don't know how long natural immunity will last, and I've been told by several medical experts (while covering city and private outreach efforts) that this is precisely while people in my situation should. And if i do experience side-effects... Well, I've gone through something like this once already.
I don't have any great message about being careful, or about wearing masks, using hand sanitizers and staying two meters+ apart - I feel like, at this point, people already made up their minds about what they will or wouldn't do, and, besides, look at how I got it. But I don't think you should take my case as proof that the aforementioned measures are useless. Statistics clearly show that reducing close contact and wearing masks have at least some effect on reducing transmission. I think people have some unrealistic idea that social distancing/masks/hand sanitizer can provide 100% protection, but that doesn't mean they don't have value.
As the saying goes, just because death is inevitable doesn't mean you should rush to meet it.
There is one thing I do hope the readers will take away from it. Get vaccinated. Whatever side-effects you may experience aren't as bad as getting immunity the hard way.